Hi there, I'm trying to build a storage/vm box on a low budget and since it's been a while since I last did one and tech evolved a lot, I was wondering if any of you could validate my thought process below, for tldr you can skip directly to the conclusion.
Goal
First let me explain what I want to build: I'm looking to setup a new box, can be prebuilt or parts. I want to use it for:
- "cold" decent quality storage; "cold" means low frequency access storage so no intense queries and updates on the filesystem. I also had some good experiences with ZFS in the past so I'm a bit biased here.
- hobby non-public projects, mainly VMs, no more than a handful, 3-4 running at the same time to try out web stuff; non-public meaning I don't plan to expose the projects outside with the resulting spike in processing power.
So essentially this should be a machine that sits in the corner and gets to occasionally retrieve stuff off a storage array or play tricks on the trending JS framework of the week.
With the above use case in mind I started looking for options. I set my budget to around 300 usd/eur.
First I decided not to look into used stuff like refurbished boxes because I found it that either they're too power hungry given my use goals, think used Dell R160 or I'm not covered by a good warranty.
I then also thought against small form factor solutions such as Intel Nuc because the storage would have to be external via usb so it would probably mean no or hard to get ZFS.
The options
I looked rather enthusiastically at Supermicro based builds, IPMI looked tempting, but I could not get something on the cheap, example: My FreeNAS Build: Supermicro X10SL7, Intel Haswell Xeon, ECC RAM - Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat (around 800,-)
I then turned the knob down a notch, looked at various consumer grade builds such as this Ryzen based vm host, but that also came in at around 600,- (Building a Low-Power, High-Performance Ryzen Homelab Server to Host Virtual Machines).
Then there are the promising Dell Poweredge T30 machines, Xeon based, offers ECC/non-ECC support; found one at around 400,- which could fit my designated budget. What turns me away from that offering is the weird display connectivity as it only offers DisplayPort interfaces and rumor has it the HDMI adapters need to be active, so would require some experimenting and probably extra cash for the adapters. Intel ME which is present on the Xeon also got some bad press these days, sigh..
Blast from the past, I found the HP Proliant Microserver line to be alive and kicking, last time I played with that was before the current G series. The general setup hasn't changed radically, except of course the new tech and seems to fit my annoying use cases quite well:
- decent CPU for my goals, on latest G10 but also on G8, apparently G8 one can also be upgraded
- low power usage/low noise
- ECC memory, not a must, but would not hurt if I install a zfs pool
- small size, but enough to fit a small storage array + some system/scratch disk
- nice connectivity: display I think VGA port, dual LAN as a bonus
- fits budget quite well at around 250,-
So I looked at the latest offer, which is the Microserver G10 released this year. It looks neat, but outside the slightly faster cpu I don't see many advantages to the older G8. It uses the more expensive DDR4 memory and some consumer comments on sales websites reported troubles booting into Linux OSs, though I have not been able to confirm that.
Conclusion
Having said that, I'm thinking to take the boring no-risk path and go with the HP Microserver G8 box. What do you think? Makes sense or should I revise some of the options above or others that I have missed?
Goal
First let me explain what I want to build: I'm looking to setup a new box, can be prebuilt or parts. I want to use it for:
- "cold" decent quality storage; "cold" means low frequency access storage so no intense queries and updates on the filesystem. I also had some good experiences with ZFS in the past so I'm a bit biased here.
- hobby non-public projects, mainly VMs, no more than a handful, 3-4 running at the same time to try out web stuff; non-public meaning I don't plan to expose the projects outside with the resulting spike in processing power.
So essentially this should be a machine that sits in the corner and gets to occasionally retrieve stuff off a storage array or play tricks on the trending JS framework of the week.
With the above use case in mind I started looking for options. I set my budget to around 300 usd/eur.
First I decided not to look into used stuff like refurbished boxes because I found it that either they're too power hungry given my use goals, think used Dell R160 or I'm not covered by a good warranty.
I then also thought against small form factor solutions such as Intel Nuc because the storage would have to be external via usb so it would probably mean no or hard to get ZFS.
The options
I looked rather enthusiastically at Supermicro based builds, IPMI looked tempting, but I could not get something on the cheap, example: My FreeNAS Build: Supermicro X10SL7, Intel Haswell Xeon, ECC RAM - Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat (around 800,-)
I then turned the knob down a notch, looked at various consumer grade builds such as this Ryzen based vm host, but that also came in at around 600,- (Building a Low-Power, High-Performance Ryzen Homelab Server to Host Virtual Machines).
Then there are the promising Dell Poweredge T30 machines, Xeon based, offers ECC/non-ECC support; found one at around 400,- which could fit my designated budget. What turns me away from that offering is the weird display connectivity as it only offers DisplayPort interfaces and rumor has it the HDMI adapters need to be active, so would require some experimenting and probably extra cash for the adapters. Intel ME which is present on the Xeon also got some bad press these days, sigh..
Blast from the past, I found the HP Proliant Microserver line to be alive and kicking, last time I played with that was before the current G series. The general setup hasn't changed radically, except of course the new tech and seems to fit my annoying use cases quite well:
- decent CPU for my goals, on latest G10 but also on G8, apparently G8 one can also be upgraded
- low power usage/low noise
- ECC memory, not a must, but would not hurt if I install a zfs pool
- small size, but enough to fit a small storage array + some system/scratch disk
- nice connectivity: display I think VGA port, dual LAN as a bonus
- fits budget quite well at around 250,-
So I looked at the latest offer, which is the Microserver G10 released this year. It looks neat, but outside the slightly faster cpu I don't see many advantages to the older G8. It uses the more expensive DDR4 memory and some consumer comments on sales websites reported troubles booting into Linux OSs, though I have not been able to confirm that.
Conclusion
Having said that, I'm thinking to take the boring no-risk path and go with the HP Microserver G8 box. What do you think? Makes sense or should I revise some of the options above or others that I have missed?